The president of the Algerian football federation, Mohamed Raouraoua, expressed that he does not regret retaining national coach Vahid Halilhodzic after the disappointing performance of the Algerian national team at the previous African Cup of Nations. Raouraoua believes that Halilhodzic deserves credit for keeping the Fennecs in contention for the 2014 World Cup.
“If I had listened to some people and fired Vahid at the time, today we would be in a completely different situation… Someone would have come again to rebuild everything. It would have been painful and difficult. In all honesty, we must recognize the work done so far by Halilhodzic and his staff, without forgetting the will and availability of the players who form this EN,” declared Mohamed Raouraoua on a local radio station.
Regarding Algeria’s next match in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, Raouraoua expressed his preference not to face Egypt, acknowledging the potential for subjective and extra-sporting factors in such a meeting. He stated, “Confront Egypt? It wouldn’t bother me. Whoever our opponent is, we will have to beat him in any case, even if deep down, I wouldn’t want this match. A meeting of this kind is often surrounded by subjective, even extra-sporting things. Obviously, like everyone, I would like to avoid that.”
